[varenc]

It's near the end of the quarter and holidays tends to be less productive time for employees with many taking extra time off anyway. Even with the very generous severance is still makes sense to announce these layoffs before some of the least productive times.

Also personally, I think I'd rather know about being laid off before going into the new year.

[bombcar]

Yeah, it's nicer to know you're on severance going into Christmas so you can tighten the belt than find out you don't have a job coming out with bills coming due.